And More

Where You Want To Be

April 22, 2013

While the format, style, structure, embellishment, and execution of
the finished work are all my own
creation,
the base ideas presented in it are entirely originated, formulated,
articulated, and owned by
Werner.

There are some questions which call forth answers which are very
different and which will fluctuate wildly the more people you ask. For
example "How would your perfect day unfold?". In all likelihood there's
a different answer for every human being on
the planet.
Then there are other questions which may sound like
they'll evoke very different, wildly fluctuating answers, but which
actually evoke a very similar answer - no matter how many people you
ask.

Consider the question "Where do you want to be?".

If you already have an answer, if an answer has already sprung to mind,
chances are you've taken the question too lightly, too superficially.
I'm not asking where you want to be like on Bora Bora
exploring azure waters and vivid sunsets. I'm not asking where you want
to be, like a financial place where you can stop working
and retire. If either of these (or some other answer like them)
is it for you, then you haven't definitively answered my
question.

Look: if you're already on Bora Bora, "Where do you want to be?" points
to the
next
place you want to be. Paul Gaugin's Tahiti perhaps? If you're already
monetarily stable and retired, "Where do you want to be?" points to the
nextfinancial place you want to be. Investing successfully,
providing each of your grandchildren with a college fund?

No, the question isn't where do you want to be
next?
It's where do you really want to be? See,
it's an ontological question. It's neither a geographical
question nor a financial one.

The answer I'm proposing is you want to be (ontologically)
whole and complete, fulfilled and satisfied, at peace with yourself,
creatively
inspired by Life, and comfortable in your own skin (as
Sean Connery may have said) wherever you are
(geographically).

<aside>

Yes I am proposing what your answer
really is - that is to say I'm really proposing what your
profoundest answer would be.

This (or something very similar to it) I say is your
underlying answer to the question "Where do you want to be?". This is
where you want to be - like a foundation for the rest of your
life, like a platform of stability, security, and generosity from
which to interact with your life, from which to interact with the
people in your life and with
the world,
and from which to interact with Life itself.

The access to being here ie the access to being where you want to be
(in this way) is
transformation.
And the instruments, the blunt implements (if you will)
for
transforming
life, the
scalpels,
the chisels, the mallets
with which to carve this space out of the marble so to speak, are
accessible to everyone all the time under any circumstances. They're
words.
That's all.
Yes words.
The
toolset
of
language.
But there's one proviso though if
words
through
language
are going to carve out the space where you want to be, and it's this:
they have to tell the truth - the unflinching, courageous, unwavering
truth.

Now, whenever I hear anyone (including myself ie
especially myself) talk about "the truth", I want
to shout out "And exactly whose truth are we talking
about?". That's not to deride, undermine, or negate what's being said.
It is, however, a valid question. Listen: there's nothing
grandiose, arrogant, or righteous about telling the
truth in the way I'm talking here about telling the truth,
especially since I'm not talking about echoing or rewriting those
bibles or writing a new religion.

The truth I'm talking about telling, is just the plain, simple truth.
And telling the plain, simple truth is really just a matter of no
longer lying to yourself. And it's no longer lying to yourself
about where you've been lying to yourself. It means telling the
truth about where you've been lying. This is the Jiminy
Cricket to your Pinocchio. It's your
father
and / or your
mother
to your child - that is to say, to your
inner
child (not a great distinction actually, but it's
good enough for
jazz).
It's whichever mentor(s) taught it to you way back when.

There's one more piece to this, and here it is: "where you want to
be" doesn't translate to "where you want to stay".
It translates to "where you want to come from". The difference
is both subtle and profound.
Transformation,
unexpressed, unshared, dies quickly on the vine.